Legal question: New buildings close to large tree at the bottom of my garden

scrimperjan

I've recently moved into a Victorian terraced house with a long-ish back garden.  There is a large old goat willow tree right at the end of my garden.  It's far enough from my own house not to cause any problem to me, but a cul-de-sac of new bungalows has been built in recent years backing on to my garden, quite close to the tree.  I know willows are notorious for getting in drains etc., but it's obvious that the tree was there long before the bungalows.  If there was to be any problem caused by the tree in the future, would I be held responsible, or would it be the builders' fault for building too close to my tree?  I would rather have it removed than face legal problems in the future, but it would be a shame as it's a lovely tree and provides me with some privacy.  Any advice would be appreciated!

Doozergirl

They should have designed the foundations accounting for the trees as part of the building control process.  

sgun

If they have built the drains/water pipes properly then there shouldn't be a problem. Willow roots are opportunistic so if one of the peripheral roots finds water more of the root system will grow towards the water source. The new pipes will be plastic and if there aren't any leaks in the pipes then there is no water for the roots to find. They won't damage the pipes. We have clay pipes here with neighbour's drains crossing our land so the willow I have planted is 10m or more away from them. Clay can crack, plastic should last forever. And also what Doozergirl said :-) 

scrimperjan

Thank you both, that's reassuring.

twopenny

I'd still keep any old photos you have of the tree before the bungalows were built. And the name of the builders.

You never know what people will get mad at if there is a future problem and if you can wave a photo and show it was there before the bungalows you can turn them back to the builders tout suite

scrimperjan

Good idea twopenny - unfortunately I have only just bought the house so I don't have any old photographs, but I will take some now as the tree is clearly much older than the bungalows.

FreeBear

scrimperjan said: unfortunately I have only just bought the house so I don't have any old photographs,

Street view or satellite images from something like Google Earth ?

Archive a few on CD and get some good quality prints made to shove in a file (even CDs are not reliable for long term storage of data).

lemondrops69

FreeBear said:

scrimperjan said: unfortunately I have only just bought the house so I don't have any old photographs,

Street view or satellite images from something like Google Earth ?

Archive a few on CD and get some good quality prints made to shove in a file (even CDs are not reliable for long term storage of data).

On a CD? Thats a bit retro

FreeBear

lemondrops69 said:

FreeBear said:

scrimperjan said: unfortunately I have only just bought the house so I don't have any old photographs,

Street view or satellite images from something like Google Earth ?

Archive a few on CD and get some good quality prints made to shove in a file (even CDs are not reliable for long term storage of data).

On a CD? Thats a bit retro

Or you could go for a memory stick and hope that it will last as long. I doubt the archival qualities of memory sticks are any better than CDs.

twopenny

If you record only once on a memory stick they have much better longevity. And this doesn't need to be high quality forever.

There's no rush for photos and you are likely to find some people who have them as time goes by. But Google and GEarth is a great idea.

lemondrops69

FreeBear said:

lemondrops69 said:

FreeBear said:

scrimperjan said: unfortunately I have only just bought the house so I don't have any old photographs,

Street view or satellite images from something like Google Earth ?

Archive a few on CD and get some good quality prints made to shove in a file (even CDs are not reliable for long term storage of data).

On a CD? Thats a bit retro

Or you could go for a memory stick and hope that it will last as long. I doubt the archival qualities of memory sticks are any better than CDs.

Cd's will last 2-5 years, memory sticks maybe 10 years. Lots of people use whats known as the 'cloud' these days. You can google it if you've not heard of it